Collector turns mugshots into art show

People, as a rule, love to have their pictures taken -- but not mugshots.An artist and collector of mugshots has taken those embarrassing moments in life and turned them into an art show at The Intuit Center, located on Milwaukee Avenue at Chicago Avenue. The show, which looks at the faces of crime, is by New Yorker Mark Michaelson. 'A Century of American Mugshots: The Least Wanted,' runs for three months.

"No famous people. I'm not interested in famous people," said Michaelson. "I'm interested in the small timers. The least wanted, not the most wanted."

Michaelson has been collecting mugshots now for 12 years. They range in age from the 1870's up to the 1970's and they tell the story of the tough breaks in life and how, just by doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, you can end up as a photographers model at the local police station.

"This is everybody," said Michaelson. "I'm not interested in the extremely violent or scary people. I'm looking for the everyman and everywoman. Down on their luck, fell through the cracks."

Michaelson has more than 15,000 mugshots in his collection and about 500 of them will be on display for the show. They come from across America and, as you might imagine, they are a total cross section of us.

"Everyone under the sun. All nationalities. All races. It's the whole human condition," said Michaelson.

The mugshot show has a crime tape theme: Deprendi miserum est.

"It's miserable to be apprehended ... but also it sucks to get caught," translates Michaelson.